List of changes that seems to be welcomed from the threads I’ve read
(1) The new sentry detection system is great. It mades sentry more useful and allows players to not lose time going where the ennemy is not (it goes well with point 2). This new sentry was also suposed to kill yaks and get people to go flip the sentries… sadly… yaks are useless so on that part it failed to hit the mark. Maybe the duration of the sentry scouting players is slightly too long, small reduction of that debuff could be a good improvement (feel free to share your thoughts on that point).
(2) The map calls when a structure is taken by X server is also great. It might only be a solo roamer, but it will still improve the information network. This combined with a sentry that scouted a group of players earlier allows you to walk directly to where you think the group will be in the next few seconds.
(3) The fact that lord HP scales up with the number of players. It gives people a better response time to gather enough folks to get a good fight instead of getting structures flipped without a good brawl in the lord room.
Here is a list of things that could have potential, but in their current form they are not welcomed in WvW from what I’ve read
(1) Auto upgrades seems awesome on paper… Here I think that simply making it so upgrades are forced to be in a specific order would of solved the troll problem. Make it so that yaks count! Yaks are useless now. This will also bring back the supply management that many defenders loved to take care of. Should I start the waypoint upgrade now or wait for the supply depot to fill up a little more in case this structure get attacked and we need the supply to defend? Spamming map chat asking for people to grab supplies elsewhere since the structure is about to get into an upgrade phase and such (maybe it did bring some unhappy moment when siege troll appeared, but the upside were well worth the downside of the change). Also, waypoint on T0 keep makes WvW lose its touch. I remember when we did map calls on every map to get our people to defend our T3 keep with a waypoint. Those were fun fights in the lord room. Now? Keep flips and it doesn’t matter since we will grab it back while gaining access to the only upgrade which truly did matters as a welcome gift. Also, removing Bay and Hills waypoint on the new map just bring less fights (less incentive to actually go defend it since it will never get a waypoint).
Things that I’ve read that are truly disliked in the other threads
(1) The non players automated things in the Desert borderland map. I’m talking about those slow turrets, those flame turrets, those winds turrets and those earth walls. They are annoying more than anything. As to replace those things, I would simply take them off and get the blessing of the element when near that area (no more need to actually go and click the shrine to get the move speed boost). I would also take back the combat boost that those elemental buffs gives, environement should not give such a potent stats boost which vary depending on the region you are playing on (same with the imune to burning in fire keep). Also, invisible zergs is simply a bad concept, but I got no idea how to replace that buff without imbalacing the fights (need help finding a solution so I can edit that part later on).Finally, since earth keep have 2 automated things, (turrets and walls). I would simply give them a detector (like a sentry would if it spotted an ennemy) all over the keep so it can detect any hiding ennemies inside that keep and in the close periphery of that keep.
(2) Fortified gate… Those are new and they are slow to take down. Also guild catapults got nerfed to the ground so breaking a fortified wall takes an army or will simply take forever if you are a roaming squad. But gate is now also fortified… So it just means more time raming or catapulting those objectives…which in the end me and my roaming friends just leave them be since it’s too much of a chore.
(3) The pathing of the map seems to be worse than what Alpine borderland offered. Zigzaging and going up and down makes the map that is slightly larger to feel like walking from point A to point B to take much more time than what it used to be on Alpine borderland. Or atleast it feels less straightfoward and more about dodging the ennemy than to engage them. Those keeps are just so vast with so many pathway. Keeping it simple is not always a bad thing.
(4) Reset on saturday night… Bring back friday night reset. This night was crazy, even more than saturday night reset. Get back from work, install yourself and play with your friends on a friday night was amazing.
(5) Guild upgrades being locked behind a PVE farm fest and high guild level of guild hall + big gold per use of the guild buffs.
(6) The new event in the Desert borderland map, at the moment it is not receiving much positive feedback. This event could of been great and all. But I still think that a big area with a cap point (like a capture point of pvp but scaled in size for WvW) could of been a better choice than to kill those PVE monsters. Imagine a large cap where there is a timer ticking down for every second your server control the point. I feel like it would be more appropriate for a players vs players environment. King of the hills kind of tournament would of been amazing I think. At least the event as it is is not so fun, it’s just that those Dinos don’t really belong to WvW if you ask me (my opinion, sorry if some people love those Dinos XD). A king of the hill tournament could of been one big platform or up to 3 big platform where each platform control gives you -1 second on the total timer. Once it reach 0, the canon is yours. Also, a in game message should be given on all 4 maps prior to the event.
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Basically, I think a tweaked Alpine would be a good way to solve the problems with the current state of WvW. Alpine had its flaws, but people still loved that map after 3 years (sure they asked some fix there and there, but a total revamp of the map doesn’t seem to get us to a better place, fixed some problems only to make new ones arise).
(edited by Phantom.5389)